New Delhi: China’s foreign minister Wang Yi is likely to visit India late March, though the trip is not yet fully locked in and dates have not been confirmed, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
If the visit goes as planned, it is considered to be the first visit by a senior Chinese leader to India after the two countries locked horns in a dragging military standoff in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since May 2020. The standoff, and a brutal clash in Galwan Valley in June 2020 that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops, took bilateral ties to an all-time low.
There was no official word from the external affairs ministry on Yi’s reported plans to visit India. The people cited above said on conditions of anonymity that the two sides are in touch, but the visit is yet to be fully finalised.
Minister Wang Yi had earlier this month said that China and India have encountered “some setbacks” in the bilateral relations in recent years, and called for managing their differences over the boundary issue through equal footing consultations for a “fair and equitable” settlement. He also said that some forces have always sought to stoke tensions between China and India, in an apparent reference to the US.
“China and India relations have encountered some setbacks in recent years which do not serve the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples,” he had said in response to a question on the boundary issue and ties between the two neighbours.
India’s relations with China right now is going through a “very difficult phase” after Beijing violated border agreements, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany this year. He also underlined that the “state of the border will determine the state of the relationship”.
Mr Jaishanakar had last month emphasised that India has engaged in talks with China on the Ladakh border issue with absolute clarity that it will not agree to any change in the status quo or any attempt to unilaterally alter the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the region.
“We are absolutely clear that we will not agree to any change in the status quo. Any attempt to change the LAC unilaterally by one side. So however complex it is, however long it takes, however difficult it is, I think that clarity is what guides us,” he had said during an interaction at a think tank in Paris.
Minister Wang Yi, who is also the State Councilor, had said China and India should be “partners rather than rivals”.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
